The restaurants reviewed in this report are the following.
Severo in Paris
Café Esperance in Bouillac
Hostellerie de Plaisance in Saint Emilion
Lion d’Or near Margaux
Le Saint James in Bouillac
PARIS
SEVERO
This is a nice bistro, which is quite touristic, but they have not compromised the cooking. It is a good place to have excellent “boudin noir” from Christian Parru and “pied de porc” from Auvergne. “Steak tartare” was also good and “cote de veau” with fresh asparagus was above average. The wine list is very interesting. The 2009 Morgon Cuvee 3.14 from Jean Foillard boasts a silky texture, bright red fruit, excellent balance, and soft spices in the soothing finish. I ranked it 94/100. This is one of the best Morgons I have tried.
Ranking: 14/20
BOUILLAC
CAFÉ ESPERANCE
This is the bistro associated with the Saint James hotel.
It is odd that this is in Michelin. We had standard fair, including slightly above average charcuterie, l’andouillette, and cote du boeuf.
But, the french fries were very good.
2008 Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre is balanced, with a backbone and earthy-dusty black fruits.
RANKING: 10/20
SAINT EMILION
HOSTELLERIE DE PLAISANCE
This restaurant receives two stars in Michelin.
It delivers between the high end of one star and the low end of two stars.
The optional amuses are the weakest part of the meal. The three tiny courses come hanging in glass bowls which makes them very inconvenient and annoying to eat.
They sound good, but the taste is not there: “sea urchin cream with caviar”, “crab with lobster butter and bottarga”, “oyster with exotic fruits”. This is haphazard cooking.
The first course, “spider crab with avocado and tomato” gets the balance right.
The sommelier recommended a Petite Arvine from Switzerland, and this turned out to be a good match for these dishes.
Kudos for the soft and slow cooked farm egg with parmesan milk foam, green asparagus crumbles, jamon bellota, and flying fish roe. The Petite Arvine is a great match with this.
The rouget was also very good except for one small gaffe. It was presented deboned and served with veal jus, seaweed, oyster leaf, baby carrot, salicorne and razor clams-couteaux. The gaffe was that, one of us, was served a perfectly raw and smashed, so not “vivant”, fly with the dish, which was sitting on the edge of the plate like a big licorice dot. I guess flies congregate in the kitchen when high voltage lamps are used to keep plates warm.
I ordered Jacky Blot’s 2011 Remus Plus. This is a very nice Chenin Blanc from Loire Valley, with nice sweet tropical aromas, a velvety texture, density, and a very pleasant bitterness and minerality in the finish. 93/100.
The kitchen kindly substituted rack of veal for the leg. This was nicely roasted pink and served with fresh asparagus and chanterelles.
The quality of ingredients/raw materials is fine, but not what one expects at this price level.
We had both the cheese course, and classical, well rendered desserts, like a chocolate tart, baba with mascarpone and mint, and a strawberry sphere with crumbles, coconut and lemon jelly.
We paired the veal with 2004 Denis Mortet, Gevrey Chambertin “Les Champeaux”. This is a very well made Bourgogne with a strong backbone and structure, more black than red fruits, and it is still tannic and a little tight. It does not have the elegance of a top end Bourgogne, but it has good intensity and concentration. It should evolve well. 94/100
RANKING: 15/20
NEAR MARGAUX
LION D’OR
This is a very satisfactory bistro producing cuisine du terroir.
We had vrai rillettes for amuse.
Then, we were served excellent “boudin noir” landais poele sur lit de salade.
“Parfait de foie gras de canard” was prepared in house. It was fresh and remarkably silky and fat.
It is too bad that we did not order “tete de veau servie chaude, legume et ravigote”. It looked great, with the brain intact. Half a portion of tete de veau is served as an appetizer.
Mains were “agneau de region roti a l’ail doux” with jus and “pigeon roti avec escalope de foie gras chaud”.
I guess it was about six months old lamb chops, and it was cooked rose. This dish is just short of the highest level and very good indeed.
The same comment can be made of the very good pigeon.
They are served with good thick potato chips.
Then we had brebis cheese with salad and jam, fine fraises au sucre en Chantilly, fine nougat glace et coulis de fruit, and very good canneles.
The wine list is short and not very interesting. We opted for 2008 Chateau d’Issan Margaux, which turned out to be your run of the mill, average boring, bored eau.
Bring your own wine and enjoy!
RANKING: 14.5/20
BOULIAC
LE SAINT JAMES
Michelin two star chef Monsieur Portos has departed. Now there is a new chef who previously had one star, and Michelin relegated this restaurant to one star.
The new chef, Monsieur Nicolas Magie, cooks confidently and his balance between technical prowess and deliciousness is commendable.
The problem is the service. The four of us ate there one Wednesday night in summer, and the service had serious flaws as follows.
1. We waited for about an hour to place our order.
2. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a bottle of water after you consume one. You can give the order, but your water never shows up. Others have experienced the same problem and have mentioned it in TripAdvisor.
3. The lady who was in charge of the cheese service bordered on being nasty. She did not want to respond to any question and her look was such as “vous m’emmerdez monsieur”, but she did not spell it out.
4. The new maître d’ was very nice but ineffective. It looks like nobody is in charge of the dining room.
This said, the cooking is indeed very good and deserves two Michelin stars.
The amuses already herald the delicious dishes to come: a French take on gazpacho, excellent baby quiche Lorraine, and some fun bites, including an eggplant marshmellow, a pina colada with candied pineapple pieces, prawns, and coriander.
Everything looks and tastes fresh.
The entrees are excellent.
Kudos for the “saumon sauvage de l’Adour Roti, cru et marine. Avocat and radis rouge et combawa”. This dish has super raw materials (including ripe avocado), the balance is just right, and the cooking is very precise. This is three star level entrée.
Magie’s excellent technique is also displayed in the more complicared langoustine dish: “Langoustines extralarge de la Cotiniere, just snackees, caviar d’aquitaine et pomme verte et epine vinette”. The langoustines are barely cooked, so they retain their unique sweet flavor. The claws are gratineed with herbs, green apple jelly adds the right acidity, and the caviar (the quality of Aquitaine caviar is improving) adds a touch of richness and salinity. This is also a three star level entrée.
The lobster entrée is also very good, albeit a notch below: “Homard de la Cotiniere, cuit au court bouillon cerise et amande fraiche et shiso vert”. We enjoyed the tempura from rice crackers and the roll made from almonds and stuffed with chopped lobster. The cherries did not add much, but nor did they detract from the flavor. Technical virtuosity is apparent in this dish, but maybe it is less tied to flavor and deliciousness than the previous dishes.
The four of us tasted four main courses.
The least successful was “cochon iberique double cote, rotie au sautoir et pluma caramelisee, oignon doux et girolles, jus concentre”. Maybe one has to cook the pork in a wood fire oven, as they do in Spain.
The “Ris de veau de lait du Limousin cuit au sautoir, ecrevisse et fenouil et citron vert” was good, but did not exalt as much as the divine veal sweetbread dishes one can have at the temples of haute gastronomie in Paris, such as Apicius, L’Ambroisie and Ledoyen. This said, we enjoyed the idea of lettuce gratine, and the use of a touch of ginger with sweetbreads worked.
The pigeon dish, on the other hand, was a two star level, excellent dish: “Pigeon de chez Mr. Leguen roti sur le coffer et fume aux herbes. Aubergine fumes and pois chiche et coriandre”. The chef prepared a pastilla from the pigeon’s thigh and the seasoning of the tender pigeon was simply perfect.
The plat de resistance, however, was the turbot (really) cooked on the bone: “turbot sauvage de la Cotiniere de chez ‘Gilles Perrier’ cuit sur l’arrete au beurre d’alque, arroche marine et epinard de mer et salicorne”. French chefs often overcook the fish, but this was just right. This reminded me of the great wild turbot dishes at SPORTSMAN (also with algues and salicorne), l’AMBROISIE (with vin jaune sauce), and APICIUS (for two with spices and veal jus).
I like my turbot gelatinous and not brittle, like many modern chefs who cook it too slowly (sous vide). Mr. Magie brought out the umami side of turbot. Merci chef!
They have a very well chosen cheese course from affineur Monsieur Pierre Rollet in Libourne.
The pre-dessert was appetizing: citron vert and ananas.
We did not have any dessert.
With the fish courses I chose 2007 Clos Rougeard “Le Breze”. I like the white Saumur-Champigny from Mr. Foucault, which is a very particular expression of Chenin with character from a bio producer. The aroma is very complex, obviously reflecting the use of wild yeast. It started out like freshly cut grass and pipen apple and developed pain grille, spices, and ground sesame seeds. Intense agrumes, quince, orange, and grapefruit peel are on the palette. This is a nervy, fresh, and lean wine, with intense saline minerality in the finish. I appreciate the fruit-acid-mineral balance in this natural wine. 95/100
The 2006 Meo Camuzet, Clos Vougeot tasted incredibly fresh. The secondary aromas had not yet developed. The wine is now fully open and not tight. It is beautifully fruity, and the intense red and black fruit aromas, especially raspberry and Napoleon cherries, also unfold on the palette. The aftertaste reveals sweet spices and lasts medium long. This well crafted Clos Vougeot from Meo gives more pleasure than the now closed 2005. 95/100
Clearly we hit it off with the wines, even though we could not drink enough water to avoid dehydration.
Despite the bad servie, we would like to go back.
RANKING: 17/20